NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) – Two men pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, luring him in the luxury Soho neighborhood of Manaftan for three weeks, shocking him with electric wires, hanging the stairs and trying to give up his Bitcoin password.
John Waltz, 37, and William Duplesey, 33, have been in custody since being arrested last month on lures and other charges. Both defendants will be revived in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said on May 6, Duplessie and Woeltz requested that the man take electronic devices and passwords and share their passwords so that they can steal cryptocurrency.
When the man refused to share his password, Duplessie and Woeltz began a series of brutal assaults over three weeks in a gorgeous townhouse until the man was able to escape, prosecutors said. Duplessie and Woeltz tied the man’s wrists, slam his head into the head with a gun and threatened to kill his family, according to criminal charges against the two men filed in court.
Local media have called Woeltz a cryptocurrency investor and described the alleged victim as an Italian man. The New York Times reported that both Woeltz and the suspect had been linked to a New York crypto hedge fund, the New York Times cited an internal police report that law enforcement officials described.
This alleged incident comes as three cryptocurrency-related temptations or attempts made in France so far this year. Security experts say the rapid rise in prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in recent years has created a new group of wealthy investors who could become attractive targets for criminals.
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